Late November 2023

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I got time for some extra writing, so here you go - 2 newsletters in one month. I doubt it’s the start of a trend.

Wow, what a month in AI. If you have not followed the drama around OpenAI firing CEO Sam Altman, and his return as CEO a week later, it’s a doozie. Someday it will be a great Netflix mini-series, and will no doubt keep a bunch of lawyers busy for a long time. I’ve never seen a board of directors bumble something so badly. Unrelated, I’ve been playing around with building my own GPT (a capability OpenAI rolled out recently at their developer conference), which you can try out here. Would love to hear what you think!

The team at the All-In Podcast did a great job in this episode interviewing Dean Phillips, Congressman from Minnesota and a Democrat candidate for President. It’s worth your time, I recommend it. All you vodka drinkers may especially enjoy his story.

Running volume and shoe rotation - as I’ve become an actual runner I’ve built up a rotation so I’m not in the same shoes all the time. I’ve been mostly a Saucony & adidas guy for a while, so no surprise my current rotation has 3 pairs of Saucony (Peregrine for the trail, Axon 3 and Endorphin Shift 3 for the road) and adidas TERREX Agravic for my second pair on the trail. The adi are the newest, I like them well enough although they are a bit long for their size and I suspect they will be more of a fire road shoe than one for gnarly technical trails, they just don’t feel quite as secure on my feet. I’ll probably try the Saucony Endorphin Edge as my next trail shoes, the Peregrine’s are getting a bit old.

I’ve been making steady progress on my project to learn Python, and even started my Github repository to share my work. The possibilities today to build amazing things with minimal resources are really astounding.

Nitric oxide is one of my pet fascinations as you know, and this recent study shows that endurance performance in women actually worsens with nitrate supplementation. Previous studies, mostly in men, showed it to improve performance although one study did suggest there were male-female differences. The paper poses a few theories on how / why women process nitrate differently than men. I thought this was a cool and practical finding for women.

Best Buy continues to impress in the healthcare technology market with this partnership announcement.

Life Time takes another step in the healthcare. They also recently announced plans to get into the GLP-1 business. Considering that muscle loss is a key concern with respect to GLP-1 side-effects, a gym might actually be well positioned to mitigate the downsides. In my work at Calorify I’m speaking with a number of researchers and pharma-co’s that are considering doubly labeled water to measure body composition effects of GLP-1 use (DLW is as accurate as DEXA for measuring body fat).

Some years ago I had a kidney stone and kidney infection, and ever since then I have struggled with occasional UTI’s. A while back I came across d-mannose, a supplement that’s been very helpful in clearing these without resorting to antibiotics (my original kidney infection most definitely required antibiotics, I’d almost certainly be dead without them). You can get d-mannose on Amazon here if you have had this issue and want to try it. If you’re skeptical of natural remedies you can review the literature on the topic here. Obviously this isn’t medical advice, talk to your doctor, make your own decisions, etc. etc., you all know I’m no doctor.

“Reptile” with Benicio de Toro on Netflix is excellent, I highly recommend. He’s always been one of my favorite actors. “Uncut Gems” with Adam Sandler, not so much. I really didn’t enjoy it although I was rewarded for toughing it out to the end, which I found hilarious. I won’t spoil it for you. I give Sandler credit though, it was a great acting job by him.

Early morning run to Peets along the RR tracks. Love early morning runs as the sun comes up.